Easter Lamb Rack - direct or indirect?

marcdc

wife wants lamb for easter dinner tonight. bought a frenched rack, dry rubbed it with salt, pepper, a little msg, garlic powder and onion powder, then coated it with a minced garlic, thyme, rosemary, olive oil, a little dijon mustard, salt and pepper mixture. it's been sitting in the fridge uncovered since about 10am. 

ive seen a bunch of different threads on lamb racks, both direct and indirect. intuitively i would have thought indirect at 250 until I hit 120, and then rip its face off with a hot sear either directly in the coals or close to them. but a couple people have said raised direct as an option.

thoughts?

gonna pair it with potatoes au gratin and duck fat asparagus



oh, lastly, do you think it's necessary to wrap the bones with foil? or just whatever...

dmchicago

I'd be careful with a hot sear or in the coals with that crust.

ryantt

I’d wrap the bones for the sake of presentation.  I agree with @dmchicago, I wouldn’t caveman this for the sear. 

Photo Egg

Like others have said. If you do a real high temp sear that beautiful herb crust will be a bitter char mess.
I would pull out of fridge for at least an hour then cook raised direct about 300 degrees with carful flips.
Pull about 125 and rest for 10-15 minutes before cutting and serving.
More photos please!

marcdc

sounds good, thank you all.

just prepped the au gratin. used a little nutmeg and a bay leaf in the bechamel to give it some sweet earthiness:





this is mostly shredded gruyere with a little parm and white cheddar

lousubcap

Here's the method I run with lamb racks (not as heavily coated as yours above):
Lamb rack on a slow Tuesday-banquet!  FWIW-

marcdc

lousubcap said:

Here's the method I run with lamb racks (not as heavily coated as yours above):
Lamb rack on a slow Tuesday-banquet!  FWIW-

Direct it is! Thank you, will post pics on how it comes out. 

Photo Egg

Photos?

marcdc

ended up cooking the lamb raised direct around 400ish. put the potatoes on an hour before at 400, covered in foil, then uncovered them when I put the lamb rack on. asparagus went on same time as the lamb.

raised direct was absolutely positively delicious. and an added benefit of the wrapping the legs in aluminum foil was being able to use them to flip and turn the lamb as needed (with the heat resistant gloves)... didnt use the tongs once for the lamb to try to preserve the nice crust.

pulled it at 130 IT and let it rest for 10min prior to serving. added maldon salt after carving











thank you for the tips!

StillH2OEgger

That looks outstanding!

SonVolt

Nailed it. Assuming you cooked the au gratin in the oven then transferred it to the egg? If not, congrats on that top-browning. That's not easy to do on an Egg. 

CigarCityEgger

Man, I would love to help you out with that lamb rack. Nicely done as always! 

marcdc

SonVolt said:

Nailed it. Assuming you cooked the au gratin in the oven then transferred it to the egg? If not, congrats on that top-browning. That's not easy to do on an Egg. 

no sir, I rode the egg the whole way. I started the potatoes out directly over the coals, pushed to the back where the fire was, and then would rotate every 10min. after about 40min I moved it to the front of the egg, still rotating every 10min... then about 25-30min with the foil off. really happy with how it came out!

marcdc

StillH2OEgger said:

That looks outstanding!

CigarCityEgger said:

Man, I would love to help you out with that lamb rack. Nicely done as always! 

thank you! we're officially adding lamb to the rotation

lousubcap

That is delivering a true banquet right there.  Great cook and plate.  I would crush that.  Congrats.  

Matt86m

Man I could kill that whole rack!!! That looks great!

Photo Egg

Perfect!

pgprescott

Wow! Home run! Bravo. 

gmanrva

marcdc said:

wife wants lamb for easter dinner tonight. bought a frenched rack, dry rubbed it with salt, pepper, a little msg, garlic powder and onion powder, then coated it with a minced garlic, thyme, rosemary, olive oil, a little dijon mustard, salt and pepper mixture. it's been sitting in the fridge uncovered since about 10am. 

ive seen a bunch of different threads on lamb racks, both direct and indirect. intuitively i would have thought indirect at 250 until I hit 120, and then rip its face off with a hot sear either directly in the coals or close to them. but a couple people have said raised direct as an option.

thoughts?

gonna pair it with potatoes au gratin and duck fat asparagus



oh, lastly, do you think it's necessary to wrap the bones with foil? or just whatever...

Nice job!! Love lamb!!!